Intellectual Ventures Gets Another Patent Licensee: Dashwire

Intellectual Ventures has found another licensee for its trove of mobile patents, signing a deal with mobile Web services company Dashwire in hopes of fending off future lawsuits.

Dashwire, which is currently being sued by Synchronoss for patent infringement, becomes the latest customer of former Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) executive Nathan Myhrvold’s controversial company. Intellectual Ventures is essentially one big patent warehouse, and it’s suing a host of companies in the tech industry alleging that they are infringing upon those patents. Research in Motion recently signed a licensing deal with IV, and Samsung and HTC have also signed up for protection.

That’s really what patent-licensing is at a certain level: a protection racket in which an entire industry has to decide whether or not to pay a licensing fee up front or fight off litigation in court. Smaller companies like Dashwire that are already facing litigation costs often find it easier just to pay the fee, especially now that Intellectual Ventures has shown an increased interest in actually taking companies to court as opposed to working out licensing deals.